Although many know about the massive Rs 20000 crore company that Kajaria Ceramics is today, not many are aware of the man behind it and his struggle to establish the brand.
Kajaria Ceramics is a well-known name in the country. It is one of the most popular tile brands in India with Bollywood superstars Ranveer Singh and Akshay Kumar as brand ambassadors. Although many know about the massive Rs 20000 crore company that Kajaria Ceramics is today, not many are aware of the man behind it and his struggle to establish the brand. Ashok Kajaria was born in India and moved to the US for his graduation. However, he took a bold step by leaving his mechanical engineering degree from the US behind and returning to India to join his family's cast trading business. While he was on a sales trip to the Gulf, Ashok met cast buyers who agreed to take him to Spain so he could make the floor tiles of their choice. Ashok Kajaria agreed and after seeing 50 factories, he set up his own plant in India in partnership with Spain's top company - Todagres.
Todagres helped Ashok with his technical knowledge and by 1988, Kajaria started their first plant in Sikandrabad (UP), with a capacity of 1 million square meters per annum. To sell the tiles, Ashok took to marketing, and the first Kajaria ad came in 1989. Due to this, it became a market leader in just two years.
Kajaria touched sales of Rs 528.9 crore in 2007. It sold a record 20.79 million square meters of tiles. When the markets crashed in 2008, Kajaria became the first Indian tile company to list on NSE. As Ashok Kajaria started to sell tiles through the Kajaria World, it expanded to 17 outlets and touched sales of Rs 1045.71 crore by 2012.
As European market moved from conventional granite tiles to low-porosity vitrified tiles, Kajaria started producing them at his two factories. By 2015, Kajaria made Rs 1600 crore, selling polished and glazed vitrified tiles. It became a unicorn and touched a valuation of Rs 8000 crore.
By 2019, Kajaria touched sales of Rs 2956 crore and a profit of Rs 227 crore. It grew to an 11% market share and became a Rs 15,000 crore company. Currently, Kajaria is the 8th largest in the world. It has six plants with an annual capacity of 86.47 million square meters.
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